Surprises
by ozzypoos
Summary: Oneshot: Zack's been oddly quiet for the day... a little too quiet in Cloud's opinion. ZackCloud. Insanity on Clouds part, fluff.


Surprises

Pairings – Zack/Cloud

Warnings – Insanity and paranoia on Clouds part, fluff

Something was not... right. The entire day had the feel of complete /wrongness/ to it that it put Cloud on edge. Back almost plastered to the wall as he peered ever so carefully around the corner, the blonde gave an almost sigh of relief as he saw the hallway to be free of anyone... or anything that could possibly give an explanation to this feeling of wrongness that kept plaguing him throughout the day.

He hadn't seen or heard anything from Zack for the entire day, now that in itself wasn't unusual if the SOLDIER second in command was away on a mission... since he would be /away/ on a mission... but said second in command had no such mission currently and from what Cloud could gather... was no where to be seen.

This was why he was put on edge, for when Zack was being quiet and recluse... that was a time for Cloud to be worried. The last time something like this had happened had caused him to be downright humiliated in front of the rest of his squadron as Zack dragged him back to his quarters wearing wedding dress. He tried so valiantly to fight off the evil Zack demon as he easily overpowered the young cadet and proceeded to rid him of his clothing, only to replace them with this wedding dress. Who knew where on earth he got it from in the first place, before seizing Cloud's arm with his own and pulled the protesting blonde with him through the Shinra barracks, grinning like an idiot and saying his thanks to the laughing troops that were congratulating their marriage as they both passed in the halls.

Cloud didn't leave his quarters for weeks after that, only attempting escape when duty or training required him to attend.

/That/ incident happened only 4 months ago, Zack thought it made a nice, unique and memorable birthday present to him if they were to have a fake marriage for the day. It took his real birthday present of his now pierced ear (to match Zacks own) and hours upon hours of apologising for Cloud to forgive the older man, but he did... didn't mean he'd forgot about the humiliation though, oooh no never, not in a million years, but he did forgive his best friend.

Which brought him back to his current situation. Zack had been just as quiet and recluse back then before the 'wedding dress incident' as he was being now... and Cloud was in a full out panic. He had to make it to somewhere safe, somewhere where Zack would never think about finding him but each time he tried to think about such a place, he either came up blank or there was a critical flaw in his desired location.

The Training rooms were completely out of the question, same with the mess hall and barracks. The library would also be another obvious place to look as with the infirmary. He couldn't attempt being anywhere near the SOLDIER headquarters since he was known by the other SOLDIER's there who wouldn't hesitate to tell their commanding officer where one lowly SOLDIER cadet was. He couldn't leave the compound at all since every Shinra employee had to swipe through their identi-card before exiting the buildings... hence letting Zack know of his attempt of fleeing the other man... sure that's what he was doing now, but he didn't want Zack to know that that was what he was doing.

Slowly Cloud made his way down the quiet hallway, carefully measuring his steps so then they remained silent. His heart skipped a beat when he heard footsteps walking down an adjacent hallway close to him. His body was frozen stiff as his heart beat loudly in his ears. No... He couldn't have been found by the other man? Could he? Seconds felt like hours as he stood there, motionless and waited the certain doom that approached.

Finally a shadow crept across the floor before the body soon followed, Cloud's blue eyes widened in fear as he looked up to see his doom.

He released a shaky breath of air as the soldier walking past was in fact not Zack. 'Talk about paranoid huh?' Cloud thought to himself, one hand over his chest as he attempted to get his heart beating once more.

"Cloud"

A frightenly familiar voice spoke up behind him, causing the cadet to jump up in surprise, spun around before tripping over his feet and falling down to the ground. Looking up with impossibly wide blue eyes, Cloud scrambled back as fast as he could as he stuttered out "Z...Zack!"

Crossing his arms as he leant up against the wall, the older man's face broke out in a huge... almost /knowing/... grin as he looked down at the frightened cadet "What's the matter Spike?" Deliberately emphasising the end of his nickname.

Looking around widely, Cloud attempted to school his features into something he hoped resembled calm "No...Nothings wr...wrong...Zack.."

Kneeling down in front of the blonde, Zack's grin seemed to widen as leant against Cloud's knee "You sure? Because you seem a little... jumpy?"

"No no everything's fine Zack" Cloud hastily rushed out, hoping to the planet that he could figure out a way to escape Zack's evil clutches without the other man knowing what he was doing.

"Good!" Zack exclaimed enthusiastically.

Grasping Cloud's smaller hand, Zack pulled the young cadet up to his feet as the SOLDIER stood up "Then you won't mind coming with me for a bit then huh? No of course you wouldn't mind spending some /quality/ time with your bestest buddy in the whole wide world"

"Ur.. Zack.. Would love to but err" Cloud paused for a moment while he quickly thought up of an excuse to decline "I would love to but I've a book I /have/ to return to the library" Cloud could of slapped himself silly, of all the stupid /stupid/ replies... he had to go with 'returning a book to the library'

Amusement radiated out of Zack's every pore as he laughingly said "Well it will have to wait, spending time we me is much more important that a library book"

"But Zack it's really, really... really important to return this well overdue book, otherwise... I'll get into even more... trouble...?" The argument didn't even sound solid to himself and this time Cloud didn't refrain himself from slapping himself for his stupidity. Slapping his hand against his face, Cloud shook his head before sighing.

Ruffling the blonde spikes to get Cloud's attention, the cadet knew he was doomed by the almost predatory look upon the SOLDIER's face, well before Zack decided to state the obvious "Well where is this book of upmost importance?"

Shoulders sagging in defeat, Cloud, in an attempt to save any dignity left sighed once more "I left it back in my dorm room."

"Well we'll just have to swing by there after I'm done with you and return it won't we?" Looping his arm with Cloud's, the older man began dragging the unprotesting blonde beside him, chuckling in almost villainy-type glee.

---

"So Zack... where are we going?" Cloud forced himself to ask. He was sure that if it wasn't for Zack's arm so tightly looped around his own, the blonde cadet would of been off running towards freedom long, long ago... but as it stood, he was trapped from going anywhere as long as his friend's monster strength held him in place.

"It's a surprise Spike" Was all Zack replied with as the two of them still made their way down... strangely deserted hallways.

Thing's really weren't right now, had Zack bribed every single SOLDIER and trooper away from this area so then the older man could do something so /obviously/ humiliating to the blonde once again!

Was there a kiddie pool full of jelly waiting for him to be dunk in at the end of this hallway and people there with camera's to photograph the 'hilarious' moment!

Perhaps Zack was going to strip him naked out in the open and use his body to body-paint with... he'd noticed Zack had been feeling a little artistic lately with his scribbles of himself on the corner of reports and he wouldn't put it past his best friend to want to try something crazy like body-painting the Shinra logo on each of his butt-cheeks while he covered the rest of his body with Zacks own self-portraits while writing Zack rocks up and down his arms and legs!

Even worse still, maybe Zack thought it would be so absolutely funny for Cloud to dress up in a chocobo cos-play outfit and force him to eat greens while walking around the outside eating area and allowing the blonde to say nothing but 'Wark wark' while the others watching tried to tempt his being into doing a chocobo waltz for the crowd?

'Why, why did Zack have to be so sadistic!' Cloud thought as he sobbed inwardly.

This was it, the end of Cloud Strife as he knew it as the much dreaded outside eating area came into view. Swallowing hard, Cloud cast a nervous glance up towards Zack, cringing when he saw the self-satisfied smirk plastered on the others face.

He knew he was letting his nervousness show as his eyes darted wildly around the clearing, looking feverishly for any signs of people, cos-play outfits, jelly-filled pools or cans of paint but wasn't sure if he should sigh in relief or not at the lack of all of the above.

Leading the wide-eyed blonde into the outside area, Zack tugged on Cloud's hand to continue following as he dragged his friend over towards the large tree situated in the middle of the area.

"I thought we could do something different today and eat lunch together outside, just the two of us" Zack said almost embarrassingly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as Cloud stood still, jaw long since hit the ground as the blonde took in the sight of the picnic rug laid out on the grass along with a picnic basket sitting innocently on top of the tartan material.

"Za.. wha…. Lunch?... huh?" Cloud intelligently said, mind still trying to comprehend that the body was…so far… not in any danger of humiliation.

"Today is exactly one year since we became friends Spike" Zack announced cheerfully to the still shocked blonde. Wrapping an arm around Cloud's waist, the older man pulled his friend in close to his body. Cloud's expression was still opened mouth as the blonde attempted his imitation of a fish. It was cute, Zack admitted to himself.

With his free hand, Zack pulled Cloud's gaze away from the scene before him and up to meet his own. His grin melted away to be replaced by a gentle smile as he said "Happy one year anniversary Cloud" Before leaning down and pressing his lips to Clouds.


End file.
